Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 17^th August 2009: 

DAP is not afraid of MACC anti-corruption investigations but who is not afraid of going to MACC as a healthy person but come out as a corpse like Teoh Beng Hock?

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz asked what is DAP afraid of, saying:

"Don't be afraid of the preventive measures and investigations carried out by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) if you want corruption to be tackled more seriously."

DAP is not afraid of MACC anti-corruption investigations but who is not afraid of going to MACC as a healthy person but come out as a corpse like Teoh Beng Hock?

This is not fighting corruption but setting up a Gestapo in Malaysia.

Dare Nazri, who boasted of his previous brush with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), say with all sincerity, truth and honesty that he would not be afraid of co-operating with MACC in any anti-corruption investigation in MACC premises if he is not confident that he would not be a victim of the MACC’s Gestapo tactics and would not end up as another Teoh Beng Hock as a corpse?

Nazri is right when he said that DAP want corruption to be eradicated and I stand by every word that I have said in Parliament and outside that there must be an all-out war against corruption.

But MACC in its past seven months had not launched any all-out war against corruption but an all-out war against the Pakatan Rakyat to be catspaw of Umno and Barisan Nasional in their larger political game-plan to wrest back power in the states lost to Pakatan Rakyat in the political tsunami of the March 8 general election last year, using all means whether fair or foul.

Can the MACC justify its action in the Teoh Beng Hock case over an impropriety in a RM2,400 constituency allocation when the commission had been completely indifferent and impotent with scandals which are 1,000 times bigger like the RM24 million “Istana” Khir Toyo scandal or even 50,000 times bigger like the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal?

If MACC investigations into a RM24,000 allocation is to cause one life, are 1,000 lives going to be at stake in an investigation into a RM24 million scandal or 50,000 lives at risk over a RM12.5 billion investigation?

Furthermore, can MACC justify its role in the past seven months in colluding with Umno/BN conspiracy to topple the Pakatan Rakyat state governments in Perak and Selangor, succeeding in the former but not yet in the latter?

Is MACC prepared to submit itself to a Royal Commission of Inquiry as to whether it had violated its statutory powers and objectives in failing to declare an all-out war against corruption but instead had been hijacked to declare an all-out war against Pakatan Rakyat?

The MACC chiefs should realize that in declaring war against Pakatan Rakyat instead of declaring war against corruption, they are guilty of corruption in the very sense of the word!

Who is to scrutinize and expose such corruption by the MACC if not a Royal Commission of Inquiry?

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was involved in an emergency forced landing of a RMAF Nuri helicopter in Tuaran due to bad weather when flying between Kudat and Penampang.

Malaysians are all relieved that Muhyiddin, the 14 other passengers and the crew were safe.

Muhyiddin’s press secretary Ainon Mohd, who was on the Nuri helicopter, said they were heading to the Kota Kinabalu International Airport from Kudat after Muhyiddin opened the Kudat Umno division meeting at about 1.45pm.

He was scheduled to open the Penampang Umno division meeting later in the day but following the incident, Muhyiddin had asked Chief Minister Musa Aman to open the Umno meeting in Penampang on his behalf.

Did Muhyiddin corruptly misused his powers as Deputy Prime Minister in using a RMAF Nuri for Umno purposes which has nothing to do with his official duties?

Will MACC haul in Muhyiddin for investigation and apply on him some of its Gestapo tactics?

Nazri and the MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan, whose bias and malice has finally bubbled into the public with his uncalled for remark about the DAP “putting on an opera” and “DAP’s constant barrage of negative stories about the MACC”, should realize that the grave crisis of confidence in the independence, efficiency and professionalism of the MACC cannot be wished away by a battery of denials but must be addressed frontally or the duo will be doing the greatest disservice to the cause of integrity and the battle against corruption in Malaysia.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor